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I picked up a set of controls this weekend of unknown origin. I am leaning toward West Bend as the brown of the casing has that appearance of the mid-late 1950s West Bend muddy brown motors, before they went white. The two buttons appear to be start and shut off buttons. The tips of the throttle and shift handles are rubber/soft plastic. Looks like it would take an OMC style cable with removable ends.
Scott, you are correct – West Bend/Elgin, late 1950s into the early 1960s and for the 30, 35, 40hp models. If I recall correctly the buttons are choke and start. (I think you kill it by simply pulling the throttle all the way back)
Not having the control cables is a bummer if someone wants to use them on the WB/Elgins, I’m not aware of anything like them in the way they hook up and mount on the motor.Shifter box for the 1958 I have:
Here’s what the cable ends look like, the cable has a small "J" end that fits into a rod on the motor. The screw collar then tightens down over it to the mount nipples on the motor and keeps the "J" from popping out. Since only that small hook makes the connection you need to be sure everything works super easily!
Art – I actually have some cables that came with these. They LOOK a lot like the OMC style cables of the era with the rubber coating, BUT they have an exceptionally long brass leader on one of the cables on the motor end. Where a normal OMC cable would have about a 4-inch leader that the plastic bit slides on, the one cable I have has about 12-inches worth between the barrel nut and the end of the leader. The plastic clip in the one pic is the only cable end I had on a cable. The cables were questionable, which is why I removed them from the box. I am going to see if the long leader can be adapted to the OMC cables. I actually picked up two sets of these controls, although the second set is missing the wiring & switches part. Both sets came with cables.
What is the toggle switch on yours for?
To answer your question about the switch I had to look at it when I got home. I forgot that the red ’58 Elgin control has a toggle switch for ON/OFF as well as the buttons for Start and Choke. Before I got that control I used a set of West Bend ones that just had the Start and Choke buttons without the toggle switch – like the ones you have.
Since you got me interested, a look at a 1957 Elgin Accessory Catalog I have shows they made a third model for the smaller 5 1/2 and 7 1/2 motors that didn’t have any electrics/buttons. I’ve never seen one of these in the pink, below is a quick photo of the illustration – the ends do look very similar to OMC ones. However, as you can see on the lower left, there is an involved multi-part "kit" that mounts on the motor to allow you to use the controls – it’s certainly not simple like a Johnson or Evinrude!
Here are the cables I pulled from the West Bend controls. The brass leader is a hair less than 12-inches from the barrel nut on one, and 6 inches on the other. Both leaders are longer than the standard OMC style, which is about 4-inches from the barrel nut to the tip. The shorter ended one also has a brass tip crimped onto the end of the bowden wire.
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